If you've ever tried to work with the SVG TOP in TouchDesigner you've likely had one of two experiences – it worked like a charm out the gate, or you found yourself scratching your head and cursing under your breath wondering how on earth this file type works.

Core Concepts​

• Functions as a concept
• Anatomy of a function
• Writing functions
• Calling functions
• Returning values
• Passing arguments

Part 1​

Core Concepts​

• Dictionaries – a structure and a concept
• Looking at Dictionaries and Lists side by side
• What are key value pairs
• Retrieving values from dictionaries
• Retrieving .keys() and .values()
• Adding items to dictionaries
• Nested data structures
• A better text formatting approach with .format() (a big thank you to Willy Nolan for setting me on the right path with text formatting in Python 3)

Part 1​

Core Concepts​

• Lists – a structure and a concept
• Creating lists – syntax and structure
• Retrieving items from a list – Syntax
• Adding items to a list .append() and .extend()
• Lists of Lists

Part 1​

Core Concepts​

• Simple Logic constructs in Python and in TouchDesigner
• If, And, Or
• >= , <= , == , !=
• if, else, elif

Core Concepts​

• Python expressions as references
• Syntax
• Accessing CHOPs
• Accessing DATs
• How to read the python help on the Derivative Wiki

Core Concepts​

• Understanding variables in Python (different form what we mean with TouchDesigner variables)
• Referencing by using variables in a script
• simple scripting
• simple preset recall

Core Concepts​

• Using the text port
• Running scripts
• print()
• strings, integers, floats, and booleans
• printing and joining
• simple substitution in strings

Part 1​

Core Concepts​

• The Text TOP
• Building a plate from a template
• .sample method in TOPs
• Using Table DATs with the Text TOP